Legendary Performer Gains New Life
Rock n’ roll has been popular for decades and has evolved into many different sub-genres since it’s inception, but it’s often easy to forget where its roots come from: the blues. Richard Wayne Penniman, known to the world as Little Richard, was one of the first to help usher in this transition, and his dynamic showmanship and up-tempo style of blues has influenced many artists over the years. Breaking the color barrier that was so entrenched at the time, he gained significant mainstream popularity with many chart topping hits. His debut studio album, Here’s Little Richard, is one of the most celebrated albums of all time, and has just been re-released with new material on it’s 60th anniversary.
Off the bat, the album contains three of Richard’s greatest hits: “Tutti Frutti,””Long Tall Sally,” and “Jenny, Jenny.” All of the music is relatively standard 12-bar blues, but it’s the charisma, not the chords, that put him on the map. “Raw” has long been a desired descriptor in rock n’ roll music, and Richard’s energetic squeals and cracking voice certainly give his music that quality. He’s exclusively singing in the top of his range, barely pausing for breath; and if his lyrics aren’t about women, they’re completely nonsensical, such as the famous “Tutti Frutti” line: “A wop-bop-a-loo-bop, a-wop-bam-boom” (a verbal rendition of a drum pattern he’d been thinking about).
The new bonus tracks are somewhat of a surprise, as rather than continue the high-octane pace of the original Here’s Little Richard, songs like “Baby” and “All Night Long” slow down the tempo. Rather than end with a song, the album concludes with a ten-minute interview with Art Rupe, the founder of Specialty Records. Rupe’s label was home to many early rock and R&B artists such as John Lee Hooker Sam Cooke, and Little Richard himself, and here the executive talks about how he first discovered Richard.
Little Richard is still going strong today at 85 years old, though he unofficially retired from performing in 2012. A re-release of Here’s Little Richard is a fitting tribute to a legend who helped shape new horizons in the musical landscape for years to come.
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